Doctor Hyde
In the Science Center district of Skyline City there is absolutely no criminal that inspires as much fear as Doctor Hyde. Aside from the fact that the man is a monster in both mind and body his predilection toward the capture and scientific experimentation on innocent civilians is well known. The fact that he rose to terrorize Science Center with almost single-handed plans and schemes was key in Parasol's decision to invite the madman to become the Advent Overlord of the district in which he...hunts. Background Even as an adolescent boy in Skyline Cirt, Andrew Hyde (pronounced hi-dee) was fascinated with biology. Insects, animals, humans; the inner workings of them all utterly obsessed him. As he grew into his teen he showed an astonishing aptitude for the science. One of his teachers, acting on a hunch, had the boy tested. He and Hyde's parents were astonished when the results came back a whopping 138. Hyde, himself, though wasn't surprised. In face, he didn't care very much. Being officially recognized as a scientific genius enable Hyde to enter college at the age of seventeen, where he would spend the next seven years earning his Doctorate in human biology and three Master's degrees: medicine, veterinary medicine, and biochemistry. At 24 he spent his residency in Skyline City's Von Zahnt Hospital and once his medical license was secured he struck out on his own. It had always been Hyde's belief that human biology and evolution was suppressed. Humans use 10% of their brain according to popular if incorrect rumor, they have glands and organs that apparently have no purpose, and so on. Hyde had decided years ago that he would explore these limitations, defy them, and catapult humanity to what it is supposed to be. Of course, such explorations and experiments need living tissues and organs. Slowly, dreadfully slowly, The Science Center's homeless population began to disappear. The disappearances weren't of much notice at first because after all, homeless disappear all the time. But when the scales tipped at three a week, local law enforcement became concerned. When one of the missing homeless men wandered into a small biological lab in the Science Center's Westerson Street and detonated, blowing three employees and the building up, the superhero team known as The Phalanx began to investigate. It was they whom found Doctor Hyde and learned the horror of what he had become. Despite numerous failed attempts at stealing bodies, gaining control of the Science Center's medical labs, and once even trying to release a virulent and fatal airborne toxin into the air Doctor Hyde has none-the-less so far managed to evade capture and come to the attention of The Advent's mastermind, Parasol. Dr. Hyde is simply persistent to the point of being a constant menace to the Science Center district and, with enough luck, he could become Skyline City's number one villain. Now that he has access to The Advent's resources, he may well become unstoppable. Skills & Talents Doctor Hyde has an almost super-human understanding of human biology and genetics, as well as innate skills with engineering and programming. Not only can he perform skilled and precision surgeries, he can make the human body do impossible things. He makes super-humans, and he makes monstrosities. Doctor Hyde is the quintessential super-villain, prone to crafting elaborate death traps for heroes and delivering long and eloquent soliloquies. If he weren't such a mad man, he could almost be likeable. Almost. Powers Doctor Hyde's powers derive entirely from the mangled, humanoid lump of patchwork cadaver flesh he has grafted himself into. He is very hard to injure with physical attacks: punches, knife wounds, and even small arms fire won't slow him down. The flesh possesses superhuman stretch, capable of lifting 50 tons. The oversized right arm of the corpse-thing is fitting with a concussion cannon. The cannon can alternate between releasing concussive beams of energy or rapid-fire balls that detonate on impact. The cannon doesn't seem to have any limit of how many charges it can fire. Secondly, Doctor Hyde can change the energy of the output of the cannon to target the weaknesses of any foe. The cannon can emit fire, cold, sonic waves, lasers, radiation, and intense heat. Thirdly, each side of the cannon is equipped with gas grenades filled with a knockout gas that spreads to a 20 foot radius. Each of the four grenades contains enough gas to knock out a crowd of people. The arm is also equipped with a razor sharp blade crafted of Trillum (a mixture of titanium and Vibranium dust) that can be utilized with such force it can slice a fully grown adult male in half with one stroke. Quote "I am so much more than I used to be. Soon, so will you." The Flesh Collective The Flesh Collective is name of the gang that operates under Doctor Hyde's ever-watchful eye. None of these people, those are still alive in any case, are stable. TFC is made up of the most despicable, violent people from other gangs such as the Chromatic Dragons, Creepshow, and White Tigers whom found their original gang unable to satisfy their need for violence. '''Reapers, '''like Morticians, are the only true humans in The Flesh Collective and are the foot soldiers. Unlike other gangs, the Reapers do their best to remain subtle, haunting alleys and shelters for the disenfranchised. They are immediately recognizable as they wear hospital scrubs or lab coats. Every Reaper is equipped with 10 doses of Thorazine to be used on their victims, a hand saw, and a heavy cleaver. '''Morticians '''are the officers of The Flesh Collective, keeping their eyes on the Reapers and issuing instructions on when and where to strike to grab a target or two. Morticians are not quite as easy to spot as Reapers, but they always dress in professional attire with a lab coat and stethoscope. For every five Reapers found in public there is always a Mortician with them or nearby. In addition to the standard heavy cleaver, Morticians also carry some kind of sidearm. '''Cadavers '''are just what they seem: the dead. Cadavers are bodies that have been wired by Doctor Hyde in order to regain animation and obey simply worded commands. Most Morticians keep a pair of cadavers with them to use as cannon fodder. Cadavers are used for slave labor. There is no point in trying to communicate with them, they're nothing more that mobile, rotting computers. '''Eidolon '''members of The Flesh Collective that have superpowers. When Doctor Hyde discovers that one of his Reapers or Morticians are imbued with super-human abilities they are automatically promoted to the rank of Eidolon. The Eidolons are the generals of The Flesh Collective and all have the same appearance: men and women poured into a black vinyl catsuit and full head mask. It's impossible to predict what powers an Eidolon may have until they unleash. Law Enforcement has dealt with tank Eidolons, energy projectors, mentalists, and others. Cortex Cortex is Doctor Hyde's right hand man. He is the Doctor's administrative assistant, messenger and gopher, and the second in command of the entire Flesh Collective. He and the Doctor have been together for twenty years now and each man has a profound respect, admiration, and honest liking for each other. For one to betray the other is unthinkable. Doctor Hernan Cortex did his residency at the same time as Doctor Hyde, and that is where the friendship began. Although Cortex began his medical career with a sincere desire to help people, his allegiance and friendship with the Overlord has changed his personal paradigm in agreement with Hyde's: he now believes that the best way to help someone is not to just cure their ailments but to prevent those ailments in the first place by changing the biology of the sufferer. If the course of the treatment changes the 'patient' into a monster so be it, they will never again suffer their illness. Is that the point of the treatments? Cortex is, himself, the first patient he ever had. His diagnosis was stage 3 colo-rectal cancer. He, along with Hyde's help, not only beat the cancer by curing it, but also ensured it could never return. The AMA is up in arms about Cortex's claim. The entire AMA condemns him as a monster, but half of the organization hopes that when he is finally arrested that they will be able to pry his cure for cancer from him. Cortex is six foot three inches tall with a tight muscular build and dark purple skin covered with boils, moles, and rough, flaky patches. The genetic modifications made to his body have not only rendered him completely immune to the ravaging effects of disease but has also opened in him a hoard of offensive mental powers. He is able to mental overload the pain centers of a foe's brain to cause crippling, debilitating pain that could-given enough time-overwhelm the victim to the point of rendering him unconscious. He is able to create knives, swords, daggers, and swords of pure psychic energy which he can use for both long-ranged and hand to hand combat. He can create psychic 'dead zones' that force the foe into a state akin to sensory deprivation, and can use his mental energies as a bomb to hurl foes backwards. The Dollmaker Alicia Avery, the only daughter of a doll maker. Alicia loved her native Dublin as much as she loved her father. She had been the Avery's only child, and both parents lavishly devoted love and attention on her. When she was three years old, Alicia's mother became ill and soon succumbed to the cancer, leaving Wallace Avery to raise her alone. By the time she was 11 years old Avery had shown an amazing talent for computers, not just using them but programming them. Wallace Avery had her tested, but while her intelligence tests came back in the normal range there was no denying that her computer skills were above board. The government of Ireland offered to pay for specialized education, and Wallace Avery agreed. Transferred to a special privatized school, Alicia had no idea that whom was educating her was The Directory of Military Intelligence. DMI is the branch of the Irish secret service that deals with defense, and Alicia was being schooled in computer programming, hacking, languages, and espionage in order to serve the government's interests. When it became known to DIM that Alicia had passed this information along to her father, it was decided that Wallace Avery needed to be silenced in order to assure he would not be boating to others in his pride. Alicia was crushed beyond measure when her handler informed her that he father had been shot and killed by a mugger, and it took her less than a day of snooping around for her to discover where the termination order had come from. Grieving, laden with guilt, and feeling absolutely betrayed, Alicia made a few quick strokes on her keyboard to purchase herself passage to Paradigm City. Setting a bomb threat but no bomb on the ritzy side of Dublin, Alicia easily walked away from DIM when they were distracted with the threat and arrived in Paradigm City three days later. She worked for a time hiring her skills out to whomever needed them, and found greater payments came from illicit groups than legal ones so she simply shrugged her shoulders and became a criminal, calling herself The Dollmaker. How Dollmaker came to be in Doctor Hyde's permanent employment is unknown, but it is her that programs and devises all of the technology used by Cadavers. In addition, she also writes programs for Hyde, Cortex, and certain Morticians when it is needed for, not to mention the members of The Aftermath. The pretty 20 year old seems to be completely apathetic about what her organization does, not does she seem to care that DIM has discovered her identity and plans to take her into custody. She is currently Doctor Hyde's left hand woman, and would take control of Hyde's forces should Hyde and Cortex somehow be unable to. The Aftermath The Aftermath is the team code name for the four powerful meta-human criminals that come together to perform specialized missions or to provide specialized defense for Doctor Hyde. Outside of The Aftermath these four rarely socialize together and rarely commit crimes. It almost seems that Hyde has something on each of them that he uses to control them but so far nothing has surfaced to indicate that this might be a fact. '''Warhorse '''acts as the leader of the Aftermath. Appearing on the combat field in a red bodysuit with black belt, gloves, boots, and mask he is something of a triple threat. Warhorse is quite skilled with gymnastics and tumbling and likes to keep moving in combat, utilizing ducking, dodging, and evading to close on his oppoent before unleashing a flurry of martial arts strikes, throws, and joint locks. He is also super-humanly strong, able to lift and hit with 12 tons of force. '''Plague '''is the only female of the team, wearing a light green body stocking with dark green boots, gloves, and face paint. She is able to mentall summon, congregate, and attack with swarms of insects and small animals such as toads and rats. Victims of her calling will find themselves under assault by swarms of angry hornets, tidal waves of skittering spiders, or a tiki gomwall of sewer rats. '''Conquest '''arrives ready for the fight shirtless, wearing a pair of white tights, shoes, and a white bandanna around his face. His features mark him as being of Asian descent, though his deep tan skin tone suggest more of a Pacific Islander heritage. Conquest is an energy projector, unleashing blasts and beams of sizzling white power. Not only can he do straightforward assaults buit he has learned a few tricks too, such as bouncing his attacks off of flat surfaces to strike targets from behind or hidden by cover and blasting large thrown objects out of the sky. '''Famine '''is quite likely to be the most frightening member of Aftermath. He is quite the tall one, nearly seven feet of humanoid male form covered in a tattered multi-layered grey and black cloak and hood. His features are indiscernable, and he never speaks. His power seems to be whatever is going on under the clock: he throws it open to unleash a horde of Reapers. As the Reapers attack he selects victims, one by one, to leap on and swallow under his cloak. When they are released they are always released in the fetal position, cold to the touch, drained of energy, and absolutely terrified. Heroes Unlimited agent Solitaire has made an in-depth stidy of Famine and believes that he isn't a human being at all, but that he is in actuality a manifested spirit of fear that Doctor Hyde has somehow managed to gain control of.